The Oracle's Passage

(For Chinua Achebe 1930 – 2013)

Your quill kept its strength to the very end

Goodbye, silvery gong

Farewell, tireless crier

Teller of tales and unsubtle truths

Valiant scribe, thank you for your screams

That shrilly bore witness to our trouble

For the persistent scrawl

That set forth our forgotten dreams

For the ceaseless screech of conscience

That told us our homestead was not at ease

For the straightness of your arrow

That found no tin gods to appease

For troubling the sirened bearers

Of fat yams and rusty knives

For the purposeful words that offered elegant meaning

To the mystery of ordinary lives

Your centre held in spite of the widening gyre

Fare thee well, earnest traveller

Find rest in the hallowed chambers

In the embrace of true immortality

(image sourced from www.harvardstreet.org)